International media and entertainment law firm SmithDehn LLP, which recently launched new operations in Derry, and which has a client roster that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, HBO, Paramount Pictures, Channel 4, 20th Century Fox and over 300 other media companies and high-profile individuals, today has added senior BBC in-house lawyer Philip Wheeler to its increasingly formidable team.
This amounts to yet another expansion into the UK by US-based SmithDehn, which recently took on five other legal professionals for its UK operations, including four in Northern Ireland, with plans to hire dozens more there.
It means SmithDehn is now the world’s only media and entertainment law firm that serves as a “one-stop shop” for US/UK film and television production, pre-production, and post-production services, including content and compliance advice, as well as business affairs.
Philip Wheeler needs no introduction in UK television and film circles, having served as the go-to legal content/compliance adviser for countless award-winning and other major TV/film projects, which have enthralled the public, and which in at least one case has led to a government minister losing his job.
In particular, for most of his time at the BBC, Wheeler served as the pre-publication adviser for BBC Northern Ireland, including its multi-award winning TV current affairs strand, “Spotlight.” Wheeler’s media law career has spanned approximately 20 years, over 11 of which were spent at the BBC, as well as years at prestigious media law firms, after his graduation from Oxford University.
SmithDehn, with operations not only in the obvious locations of Los Angeles, London, and New York, has broken the traditional media law firm mold by also establishing high-end legal service offices in Derry; Mysore, India; and Asheville, North Carolina.
While other law firms have shifted low-level “document factory” and other clerical work to low-cost locations, SmithDehn is creating high-end “front offices,” rather than “back offices,” in locations where US and UK media and entertainment clients are served by talented, cost-efficient professionals across multiple time zones.
The firm’s desire to facilitate the creativity of television and film clients has motivated Philip Wheeler’s decision to join SmithDehn.
Says Wheeler: “I’m eager to increase my direct involvement with filmmakers, production companies and content developers and provide them with the benefit of the wide range of experience I’ve gained over the years. SmithDehn LLP, as the most innovative and rising leader in the field, is the perfect match for my continuing legal career. I am also looking forward to further training and fully utilising SmithDehn’s amazing teams in Derry/Londonderry and throughout the world.” SmithDehn LLP senior partner Russell Smith adds: “The addition of Philip Wheeler to our team is a perfect match. He combines vast experience and skill with a strong ‘can-do’ attitude and motivation to help clients. Film and television companies in both the US and the UK have been waiting for the chance to hire us for UK content/compliance assistance. Finally they can.”
SmithDehn has facilitated the production and distribution of such diverse and highly-praised projects as Searching for Sugar Man, CitizenFour, Virunga, Borat, The Imposter, Dirty Wars, Project NIM, and the Ali G show. This year, two of SmithDehn’s clients have been nominated for Academy Awards, and four other SmithDehn clients recently premiered their films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
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